Iodide pills offer only limited protection against radiation

Patrick O'Shea @NewsAddict2

Wednesday

Mar 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2011 at 8:18 PM

Although some officials are pushing for further distribution of a drug to help shield residents living around nuclear power plants from radiation poisoning, experts are saying giving out more of the pills is unnecessary and taking the drug offers only limited protection.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission currently makes the drug, potassium iodide, also known as KI, available to states for distribution within a 10-mile radius of nuclear power plants. However, some House members from both parties want that expanded to 20 miles.

Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Bill Young, R-Fla., recently wrote separate letters to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to implement a 20-mile radius distribution of the drug in the wake of the radioactive fallout arriving in the United States from Japan's nuclear plant accident.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also supports expanding the zone to 20 miles, said Dr. Steve Krug, who chairs the group's disaster preparedness advisory council. "It's really the children who need the protection the most, and our stockpile and strategies have not thoroughly considered the needs of children," he said.

And the American Thyroid Association, whose mission is to promote thyroid health, has been advocating since 1984 that potassium iodide be made available within 200 miles of a nuclear plant and be distributed to households within 50 miles of a plant.

But Patricia Milligan, senior technical adviser for preparedness and response at the NRC, said the agency is "absolutely confident" that the 10-mile radius is sufficient.

And Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4, McCandless Township, whose home is about 30 miles from the nuclear plant in Shippingport, said there is no need to make changes.

"(The NRC) set it at that radius for a reason," he said. "I'm not in favor of changing it."

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair Township, whose home is about 35 miles from the Shippingport plant, said leaders certainly should review nuclear power use in the areas of safety and making the most efficient use of the power. But he said basing legislation on the drug would be useless because it only would create panic or a false sense of security.

"Congress should not regulate science," he said.

And others warned that reliance on potassium iodide is not the best way to prevent cancer in the event of radioactive fallout.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, "taking a higher dose of KI, or taking KI more often than recommended, does not offer more protection and can cause severe illness or death."

In 2002, President George W. Bush's White House science adviser, John Marburger, concluded that a better route was evacuation and monitoring of contaminated food.

"It is possible that public misunderstanding of KI and its limits may lead to a dangerous sense of false confidence that KI provides inoculation against all forms of radiation," Marburger wrote.

President Barack Obama has not reversed that decision. Health and Human Services spokeswoman Dori Salcido said the government is studying various aspects of the disaster in Japan, including potassium iodide distribution. But, she said, "Experts agree that the best approach is always to avoid harmful levels of radiation by evacuating people nearby and monitoring food and water sources for harmful radiation levels."

Dr. Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico radiologist who led an international study of health effects after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, said having potassium iodide around plants is of fairly limited use.

"I think the focus is wrong on potassium iodide," he said. "I think the focus clearly needs to be on the food chain."

Patrick O'Shea can be reached online at po'shea@timesonline.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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